•
Colombiana: The Making Of (25:12 in 1080P)
•
Cataleya's Journey (9:33 in 1080P)
•
Assassins (11:54 in 1080P)
•
Training A Killer (6:03 in 1080P)
•
Take The Ride (7:46 in 1080P)

'UltraViolet' Digital Copy

BD-Live

Bitrate:

Description: In the action film "Colombiana", Cataleya, a
young woman who has grown up to be an assassin after
witnessing the murder... of her parents as a child. Turning
herself into a professional killer and working for her
uncle, she remains focused on her ultimate goal: to hunt
down and get revenge on the mobster responsible for her
parents' deaths.

The Film:

Saldana, an intense beauty, is a powerful actress, but shares a common
weakness with many women who play these kinds of action roles. She
doesn't look hefty or athletic enough to beat anyone up. She looks like
a high fashion model with a very slender build. It looks like she'd
break like a dried twig if you hit her hard. But that can be said of
many women who play these kinds of roles, including Hilary Swank, who
won an Oscar playing a boxer. Very few actresses look like they have the
muscle mass needed to survive an extended boxing match. I guess you have
to expect this kind of unbelievable heroine from the same people who
brought you the even more ridiculous “La
Femme Nikita.” The female empowerment theme in the film is
further eroded by the revealing costumes worn by Saldana in the movie.
Frequently, she is seen in very skimpy clothing, with as little of her
covered as possible. Being a sex object with a gun most is not really
female empowerment. It is more like sexploitation.

Either entrance works for her single-minded character, Cataleya. After
watching a Colombian drug dealer kill her parents, a nine-year-old
Cataleya (Amandla Stenberg) escapes to her uncle's home in Chicago, and
declares her unwavering intention: to seek revenge.

Fifteen years later, her life plan is right on target. She's a paid
assassin, killing bad guys that take her closer to her true goal: to
find her parents' murderer, and make him pay. All that's standing in her
way is a dogged FBI agent (Lennie James), and a suspicious boyfriend
(Michael Vartan) determined to find out more about her.

Image : NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.

This is hailed as the 1hour 51-minute 'Unrated' version of the film. Colombiana
has some golden (childhood), and later greenish
(confinement), hues -
moving to adventurous blue and returning to explosive,
dramatic golden. The Sony
Blu-ray
picks these up quite adeptly. This is dual-layered with an
image bordering on thick saturation. The 1080P rendition
looks terrific with exceptional contrast exhibiting healthy, rich
black levels. Detail is strong in close-ups. 35mm
grain is too fine to be noticeable in normal viewing and
textures are not abundant. DOP Romain Lacourbas shows a nice
range of unique-angled shots establishing dangerous and
thrilling auras. The visuals have no gloss - and noise never
seems to be an issue. This
Blu-ray
probably looks exactly like the film Colombiana
did theatrically. There are no image quality flaws at all.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Audio :

The DTS-HD
Master 5.1 at 2940 kbps is potent enough to take advantage of the film's
generous aggressive sequences (ammunition and explosives). Effects snap
to the rear speakers and there is also some appreciated subtlety. The
original score by Nathaniel Méchaly carries some bass that the lossless
rendering handles without issue. Like the video this is an error free
and frequently impressive transfer. There are optional subtitles and m

y Momitsu
has identified
it as being a region
'A'-locked although available in region 'B' (Europe, Australia etc.)

Extras :

Supplements
contain about an hour's worth of videos, mostly focusing on production
from the 25-minute Colombiana: The Making Of to featurettes
touching on the storyline and themes of the film. The ColombianaBlu-ray includes UltraViolet (NOT 'UltraViolent'
as I thought it first said), and allows owners of the disc to add the
film to their free 'Digital Rights Locker', enabling them to
stream or download the film anywhere dependant on some system
requirements (that seem quite liberal including Microsoft's Silverlight).
The disc is BD-LIVE functional.

BOTTOM LINE: The comparisons to La
Femme Nikita - and maybe even overtones of
Leon: The Professional are accurate. Zoe Saldana
looks perfect for the part of fem-assassin - hot with a hard
edge. The 'Revenge' theme is established quite blatantly but
that can be appealing to those looking for a quick-fix. For
what it is, Colombiana is great - in it's own
Bessonian way - and it doesn't
masquerade as anything else. You get tons of action and
vengeance from an acrobatic, boldly talented babe. So what
were you expecting? In the right mood the potential here is
quite high for a flashy, surface thrill. The
Blu-ray does a first-class job supplying all the elements of eye-candy,
ear-drum pounding, a/v and some supplemental info production
details. Those even reading this far will probably enjoy it
as much as I did.

Gary Tooze

December 12th, 2011

About the Reviewer:
Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film
since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was
around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my
horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out
new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500
DVDs and have reviewed over 3500 myself. I appreciate my
discussion Listserv for furthering my film
education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver.
Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our
Amazon links.

Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction.